Their Video:
SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – How to Get Awesome Links from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

This is the first time I was introduced to Yahoo internet user “Rocanne” (Link will take you to their profile on Yahoo)

Well, come to find out Rocanne has had insurance through many many agencies throughout the United States. From California to Georgia to Nevada and Illinois. I haven’t counted yet, but it looks like Rocanne has been allover the country. Avid mover? Multi-policy-over-insured-overzealous-crazy-insured-person? Or just a plain liar. I do not know who Rocanne is or where Rocanne is located. Chances are Rocanne works for or owns a Search Engine Optimization Company (SEO) The type of search engine optimization company that gives legitimate SEO companies bad names.

My theory about Rocanne:

Rocanne gets a customer in ABC Town, pulls up the local listing for “Insurance ABC Town” and finds any agency who has a better listing then her customer. Rocanne then writes bad reviews on all of the insurance companies hoping to decrease their page rank. All so her customer can rise to the top. Pretty sketchy…

With my information against Rocanne put to the side I reported Rocanne to Yahoo’s abuse (There is a link next to each review that reads “Report Abuse”) I entered my email address and a brief description detailing that there is no way that Rocanne is or has ever been a customer of all of these insurance agencies and that she is probably just writing bad reviews for competing insurance agencies of her own customers.

I then crossed my finger, closed my laptop and called it a day. Being my first time tattling on someone online I wasn’t sure how Yahoo would handle my complaint. Would it take them months to get to it? Would they even listen to me?

Within 24 hours (On a Sunday of all days) Yahoo had sent me an email that Rocanne’s comment was a violation and had been removed. Go Yahoo! It took Yahoo less than a day to review my complaint and remove Rocanne’s false review.

Unfortunately, Yahoo only removed the one comment that I submitted as abuse. (There are still about 22 more false claims out there)

Removing false reviews is pretty simple.

Here are some screenshots from my encounter with Rocanne:

Rocanne’s Profile On Yahoo!

View the search results for each:

Google
Yahoo
MSN Live

The following screenshots (Click on any image to enlarge) detail how each search engine displays their search results and paid search.

Organic Search – This area is reserved for normal searches, your insurance agency website will display here depending on how your site matches up with the search term and how well your site is optimized.

Paid Search – The paid search area is reserved for websites who have signed up for an advertising program. It will cost money to have your site added to these sections. The top “banner” section will cost more than the right “column” section.

Local Search - Local search, all three major search engines display local search information. Interestingly, the local search section is located above the organic search area on each site. This really goes to show how IMPORTANT it is that your insurance agency is listed locally. Information on local search: Google, Yahoo and MSN Live.

Google:

Yahoo:

MSN Live:

I’m sure by now you have noticed a theme with the blog. I have heavily talked about the importance of local search engines. Today’s post is a real life example of what could happen to your local listing if you don’t take action.  (I’m not trying to scare you, but this example could just as easily happen to you)

This morning I had my every two year CPR renewal class. In true form I logged onto Google Maps typed in the company name where I was taking my class so I knew where I where to go.

I was able to locate the name of the company by searching for “First Line First Aid, Spokane Valley” I found the local listing for First Line First Aid however, there was a problem, the map had the listing not only in the wrong place but in a different city 35 miles away from where I was suppose to go…

Fortunately I was able to notice that the map location was incorrect before I left the house. This made me think about a couple things. Google has added a new feature where users can “correct” the pin placement on the map. Was this a mistake or a case of a less than ethical competitor moving the location on the map?

How can you prevent this from happening to your local listing on Google?

First off, claim your business with Google so nobody can modify it.

Secondly, double check the location of you agency on all major search engines that have maps.

Google Maps

Mapquest

Yahoo Maps

MSN Live

I went back and corrected the listing so the pin is in the correct location. I took a screenshot of the misplacement on the map:

Click on image to enlarge

Don’t expect them to do too much work…

Have a template email ready to send them. In your email thank them for their complement and include links to where they can write a review about your agency.

Sample Email: (Feel free to copy or modify this email for your own use)

Dear Joe Smith,

Thank you very much for your kind words earlier today. We greatly appreciate it and strive to do our best to satisfy our clients. If you don’t mind can you please post a comment about us on one of the major search engines; Google, Yahoo or MSN? Doing so will only talk a few moments and will greatly help us out.

You can access any our online listings by using the links below.

Google (Insert link to your local listing on Google here)

Yahoo (Insert link to your local listing on Yahoo here)

MSN (Insert link to your local listing on MSN here)

Once again, thank you very much. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

Your agency name,
Your agency website address
Your email.

Once you have that email template ready to use forward it to your staff and inform them about the benefit of sending the email to your customers. Some agencies will even have contests for the person who gets the most reviews posted. A $20 Starbucks gift card can be very persuasive…

Now that you have the template email ready, send the email to your friends and family and have your staff do the same. This is a very good way to kick start your local listings reviews.

Google, Yahoo and MSN Live all have local search functionality. All of them also have an area where they allow users to write reviews about a company. Customer reviews can easily put your insurance agency website above the competition all of which can be done easily and for free. In my example to day, I’m going to use one of my favorite pizza restaurants; David’s Pizza located in Spokane Washington. 

David’s has customer reviews on all three major search engines:  

Google: 

Yahoo: 

MSN Live: 

(Click on any of the images above to view the actual listing) 

What does a pizza restaurant have to do with insurance? Search engines don’t care if you are a pizza restaurant or an insurance agency. They all have a local search area for local businesses within these listings there is an area where business owners can upload photos, post hours and update contact information. The more information Google has about your insurance agency the better. 

User reviews work the same way. If you have 10 of your best customers, friends and family write positive reviews about your agency on the three major search engines your insurance agency website value and position will increase. 

Try to think like a search engine. 

Your local listing has ten reviews and your competitor across the street has zero reviews who do you think the search engines will give more credit to? When a customer writes a review Google knows who they are (You are required to login first) they also know other reviews they have made and can score each user’s reviews based off of the quality of reviews they have made. The more reviews the better. 

What about bad reviews? 

Don’t think it has happened before. Upset customers, someone accidentally selecting one star instead of five stars, competitors giving bad reviews to make their own company look better… Since you have already followed my instructions for claiming your business on Google, Yahoo & MSN Live; you also have the ability to agree, disagree or mitigate your comments.

I cannot stress enough how beneficial this can be for promoting your insurance agency website. 

Next week: How to get more reviews about your agency website. 

Those are not the only search engines out there, there are others; they may not be as popular as Google or Yahoo but they do have web users searching on them. So how important is it to submit your insurance website to the major search engines? Extremely! Take a look at the list below and see how many search engines (This is only a partial list) scan Google, Yahoo or DMOZ for their own search results.

DMOZ (Owned by Netscape which is owned by AOL) is more of an online directory than a search engine. DMOZ is indexed by real people and not computer robots. Making the search results much more reliable.

The Open Directory Project is the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors. Source.

DMOZ has its benefits and it has its disadvantages. Since each site is reviewed by an editor (living, breathing human being) the quality of the search index is better than any other search engine.

The biggest disadvantage that I have noticed is it takes a long time (anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of months) to get a site added to their search index and sometimes your site submissions will be rejected for no apparent reason. I have also seen sites rejected due to poor website layout or invalid categorization.

Nonetheless, DMOZ can be a powerful search tool that separates your insurance agency website from the competition.

Have your insurance web site added to: http://www.dmoz.org/add.html

To claim your business through Microsoft’s Live Search go to: http://maps.live.com/localsearch/YPDefault.aspx

Enter (search for) your insurance agency name and city.

Once you find your insurance agency name in the search results: (If you are unable to locate your insurance agency web site in the search results than you will need to submit your domain to MSN Live Search first.)

Select your agency from the list. (While you are there be sure to give yourself 5 stars!)

On the bottom right of the page under the map there is a link that reads: “Business owners edit listing” (The link may also read: “Change your business listing”)

Select that link and follow the instructions to update your information.

See also:

Google Local Search
Yahoo Local Search

Next week: DMOZ

Go to: http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php and complete the necessary information. It is important to complete the information to the best of your ability, use descriptive words that include your location or a major metropolitan area near your agency.

See also:

Google Local Search
Local Search – MSN (Live.com)

Next week: MSN Live local search